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Published on: July 18, 2014

Bridging Pediatric to Adult Care: A Scoping Review on Transitional Care for Individuals with Congenital Heart Disease

Salvatore Angileri1, Rocco Mazzotta1, Daniele Ciofi2

  • 1Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.

Current Cardiology Reports
|May 21, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Transitional care for adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) needs standardized, evidence-based programs. This review maps literature, identifying key themes like education and structured support for better patient outcomes.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Pediatric Healthcare
  • Transition Medicine

Background:

  • Adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) experience significant challenges during the transition from pediatric to adult care.
  • Transitional care is crucial but inconsistently implemented, necessitating a review of existing literature.
  • A systematic mapping of published literature on CHD transitional care is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically map the literature on transitional care for individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD).
  • To identify key topics and trends in published research on CHD transitional care.
  • To provide a foundation for developing outcome-focused research and individualized transition programs.

Main Methods:

  • A scoping review following Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines.
  • Comprehensive search across seven electronic databases using the Population, Concept, and Context framework.
  • Data analysis using Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Multiple Correspondence Analysis, with lexicometric analysis.

Main Results:

  • Three major themes emerged: Education, Self-Management, and Structured Support; Timing, Knowledge Transfer, and Developmental Needs; and Transition Program Implementation and Coordination.
  • An increasing focus on structured educational strategies, developmentally tailored care, and system-level program delivery was observed.
  • Education-focused interventions were more prevalent in recent, high-quality studies, while implementation and developmental needs were more common in earlier research.

Conclusions:

  • Transitional care for individuals with CHD requires more standardized, evidence-based approaches.
  • Improved documentation in reporting transitional care is essential for enhancing fidelity, scalability, and long-term impact.
  • This review supports the design of individualized, high-quality transition programs focused on outcomes.
Abstract

Keywords:
AdolescentsCongenital heart diseaseScoping reviewTopic modelingTransitional careYoung adults

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